brethren-in-law
brethren-in-law is the plural of brother-in-law.
Meaning of brother-in-law
Noun
brother-in-law (plural brothers-in-law or (archaic) brethren-in-law or (colloquial, nonstandard) brother-in-laws)
- The brother of one's spouse.
- The US Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its insider trading investigation into stock trades made by then-Sen. Richard Burr and his brother-in-law at the outset of the pandemic, the former senator announced Friday.2023 January 6, Manu Raju, Devan Cole, “SEC closes insider trading probe into former Republican senator”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Jan 2023
- The husband of one's sibling.
- The husband of the sibling of one's spouse.
- He was appalled by trench conditions and the prolongation of the war, a disillusionment further encouraged by the Easter rising, in which his brother-in-law, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington (qv), was murdered by a deranged Anglo–Irish officer, J. C. Bowen-Colthurst (qv).2009, Donal Lowry, “Kettle, Thomas Michael (‘Tom’)”, in Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press
- The brother of the spouse of one's sibling.
Forms of brethren-in-law
| alternative form | brethren in law |
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Origin of brethren-in-law
From Middle English breþeren in lawe, equivalent to brethren + in + law.
Questions about brethren-in-law
- What is brethren-in-law the plural of?
- Brethren-in-law is the plural of brother-in-law.
Words near brethren-in-law in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: brethren-in-law (page history and authors); brother-in-law (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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